The present invention relates to an article of protective clothing, in particular a heatproof protective suit which provides protection against chemicals and which is made of a multi-layered material.
Suits providing protection against chemicals are generally used to allow the performance of work in connection with, for example, maintenance and repair jobs by personnel in the chemical industry and also in the course of accidents, in particular by firefighters, and to provide, at the same time, those performing this work with protection which is as complete as possible against environmental dangers arising therefrom. The effects of liquid or gaseous chemicals, in particular, are addressed in that such chemical protective suits are intended to be resistant thereto to the greatest degree. For example, a layer of butyl rubber is used for the gas-tight insulation of the protective clothing (FRG patent DE-A-38 29 501).
Although such chemical protective suits must be basically distinguished by their construction from heat protective suits, for example for firefighting, the above description of their areas of employment readily makes it clear that the need to protect a wearer of such protective suit against chemicals can not be neglected because of the possibility of unexpected or unforeseeable developments, particularly chemical reactions resulting in a sudden development of great heat, for example combustion or explosions. Even if the affected personnel leaves the respective place as quickly as possible, such unforeseeable heat and/or flame generation means considerable endangerment of the people involved, because the known material structures do not offer protection against this.
On the other hand, the above mentioned work in the chemical field requires a certain amount of mobility and flexibility of the personnel, so that the creation of a protective suit by, for example, the "addition" of chemically resistant materials on the one hand and fire protection material on the other has been found unacceptable because of the great weight created by this, along with a reduction of the freedom of action of the personnel involved.
A laminated material for protective clothing is known from FRG patent DE-A-38 29 501, which is intended to protect against both dangers, namely the effect of chemicals on the one hand and of heat on the other. As in most known multi-layered chemical protective clothing there are also layers of thermoplastic material provided here, particularly of polyester or polyethylene, which are not heat resistant over long periods of time and which themselves can burn or melt. In this case such a protective suit would be destroyed and the chemical protection would also be lost. Therefore the protective clothing with a laminated material in accordance with D-A-38 29 501 is at best suitable for the short-term effect of heat or flames; the outer layer of reflecting metal foil intended for this cannot keep the effects of extended heat away from the heat-sensitive inner polyethylene layers. Additional, the production costs for this laminated material are very high and protective clothing made from it was never put on the market.